Election Assistance CommissionOfficial sealOfficial logoAgency overviewFormed2002JurisdictionUnited States of AmericaHeadquartersWashington, D.C.Employees55Annual budget$28 million (FY 2023)Agency executiveSteven Frid, Executive Director (United States)Websitewww.eac.govFootnotes[1] [2] The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).  The Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. It is charged with administering payments to states and developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and accrediting voting system test laboratories and certifying voting equipment.  It is also charged with developing and maintaining a national mail voter registration form. The EAC is tasked with performing a number of election-related duties including:[1] The HAVA requires the EAC will create voluntary guidelines for voting systems, maintaining a clearinghouse of information regarding election administration procedures including testing and certification of election equipment, and administering the Election Assistance and Help America Vote Programs. In its 2004 budget, Congress again allocated $1.5 billion to fund HAVA. By January 2004, the EAC did not have permanent offices or budget, even though it was required to publish state election reform plans in the Federal Register before money for new voting equipment could be disbursed to the states. On December 6, 2006 Caroline Hunter and Rosemary E. Rodriguez were nominated by President George W. Bush to replace Ray Martinez and Paul DeGregorio.[2] They were confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 15, 2007.[3] In 2010, the EAC lost its quorum of Commissioners, after the resignation or end of term of Hunter (2008), Rodriguez (2009) and Hillman (2010), preventing many normal operational duties; and was without any Commissioners by 2011 after the resignation of Davidson. Bills were subsequently drafted to end the Commission. Specifically, Representative Gregg Harper introduced a bill to windup the EAC and transfer some of its functions to the Federal Election Commission.[4] The EAC did not regain a quorum until December 16, 2014, when the U.S. Senate confirmed three Commissioners, Thomas Hicks, Matthew V. Masterson, and Christy McCormick.[5] Masterson resigned in 2018; and on January 2, 2019, President Donald Trump's nominees, Benjamin Hovland and Donald Palmer, were confirmed by the US Senate,[6] and took office in February 2019. The Help America Vote Act specifies that four commissioners are nominated by the President on recommendations from the majority and minority leadership in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Once confirmed by the full Senate, commissioners may serve two consecutive terms and no more than two commissioners may belong to the same political party. On December 16, 2014, the U.S. Senate confirmed three Commissioners, Thomas Hicks, Matthew V. Masterson, and Christy A. McCormick.[7] Masterson resigned in 2018. Thomas Hicks served as the Senior Elections Counsel and Minority Elections Counsel on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration from 2003 to 2014, where he oversaw all Committee matters relating to Federal elections and campaign finance.  Prior to that, he was a Policy Analyst for Common Cause, a non-profit, public advocacy organization working in support of election and campaign finance reform. He also previously served as a Special Assistant in the Office of Congressional Relations at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He received his J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and his B.A. in Government from Clark University (Worcester, MA).[7] Christy A. McCormick served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, a position she held from 2006 until this year. She was detailed by the Deputy Attorney General to be Senior Attorney Advisor and Acting Deputy Rule of Law Coordinator in the Office of the Rule of Law Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq from 2009 to 2010. From 2003 to 2006, she served as a Judicial Clerk to the Honorable Elizabeth A. McClanahan in the Court of Appeals of Virginia. She was an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia from 2001 to 2003. She was a Judicial Law Clerk in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia from 1999 to 2001. She received a B.A. from the University of Buffalo and a J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law.[7] In February 2019, Benjamin Hovland and Donald Palmer took office, replacing Masterson and filling the other vacancy. Paul S. DeGregorio a past chairman of the EAC. He was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate on December 9, 2003. DeGregorio replaced the EAC's original Chairman, former Secretary of State of New Jersey DeForest Soaries. He had previously served as Vice Chairman. Prior to his service with the EAC Chairman DeGregorio served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), and was Director of Elections for St. Louis County, Missouri from 1985 to 1993. Caroline Hunter[8] served as Deputy Director of Public Liaison for the White House and as Deputy Counsel of the Republican National Committee. Rosemary Rodriguez[8] previously served on the Denver City Council of the City and County of Denver, District 3, Colorado. Gracia Hillman served as EAC Chair in 2005[9] and is the former executive director of the League of Women Voters of the United  States. Donetta Davidson is a former Colorado Secretary of State and was the agency's 2007 chair.[10] Gineen Bresso served as EAC Chair in 2009[11] and was the minority elections counsel for the Committee on House Administration prior to her appointment with EAC.  She previously served as a policy advisor to former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. where her primary area of focus was on election law. The current Executive Director of the EAC is Steven Frid, who succeeded Interim Executive Director, Mark A. Robbins. Prior to him, Mona Harrington served as Executive Director. She succeeded  Brian Newby, who served a four-year term from October 2015 to October 2019. Newby succeeded Thomas R. Wilkey, the agency's first Executive Director, who resigned in November 2011. Prior to the EAC, Wilkey served a four-year term as the executive director of the New York State Board of Elections beginning in 2003. He worked 34 years in the field of election administration.[12] The executive director position was created by HAVA § 204(a). The current Acting General Counsel is Amanda Joiner. Prior to her, the General Counsel was Kevin Rayburn. The previous General Counsel was Clifford Tatum, who served a four-year term (October 2015 to October 2019). The agency's first General Counsel, serving under the Executive Director, was Juliet E. Thompson.[13] She previously held the position of Associate General Counsel at the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, and General Counsel of the Louisiana Department of Elections and Registration. The current Inspector General is Brianna Schletz. The Office of the Inspector General is tasked with detecting and preventing fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement of EAC programs, regularly performing audits and evaluations. Critics have contended that the EAC has responded positively to political pressure from the Republican Party and the Department of Justice. For example, the EAC is said to have overstated the problem of voter fraud, which is often cited by Republicans as a justification for restrictive measures that Democrats charge are intended to prevent qualified Democrats from voting. The EAC Chair denied that there was any political pressure.[17] Tova Wang, a consultant to the Commission, wrote a detailed account in The Washington Post about how her research and that of her Republican co-author had been disregarded or altered by the EAC, to produce a published report "that completely stood our own work on its head." The changes included exaggerating the purported voter fraud issue and omitting references to charges of voter intimidation lodged by Democrats, as well as removing all criticisms of the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice that the report had incorporated.[18] In 2009, the United States Office of Special Counsel issued a report that found that the EAC engaged in political discrimination in federal hiring against an attorney to fill the General Counsel position because he was a Republican.[19] The report was in response to a settlement between the attorney and the EAC, in which the attorney was paid an unspecified amount of money.[20][21] In 2019, an article in Politico reported that Newby had been the subject of extensive criticism from within and without the agency since his hiring in 2015, culminating in multiple calls for his resignation from Democratic members of the House and the Senate.[22]  Anonymous sources reported that Newby played a large role in many EAC staffers leaving, including the departure of Ryan Macias, the acting director of election testing and certification, as well as his predecessor, Brian Hancock. These departures "knocked the wind out of the technical sails of the EAC," said an anonymous voting security researcher.[22] Exacerbating the situation was the reporter's speculation of the partisan nature of Newby's hiring, with the article labeling him a Republican and the Commissioner who recommended his being hired, Christy McCormick, as well. In February 2016, Newby approved requests from three states to change state-specific instructions on the NVRA federal form related to proof of citizenship for voter registration. These states required proof of citizenship by state law, a controversial policy being pushed by conservative GOP members such as Kris Kobach of Kansas, that would be used in support of Donald Trump's widely discredited claim that millions of illegal votes had been cast in the 2016 presidential election and had denied Trump a majority in the popular vote. An injunction was placed on the changes by a US Appeals court, although the case remained with the US District Court.[22] This section may need to be cleaned up. It has been merged from Certification of voting machines. The US Election Assistance Commission has assumed federal responsibility for accrediting voting system test laboratories and certifying voting equipment through the Voting System Certification & Laboratory Accreditation Program.[23] The purpose of the program is to independently verify that voting systems comply with the functional capabilities, accessibility, and security requirements necessary to ensure the integrity and reliability of voting system operation, as established in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). With this program the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will recommend labs for accreditation through its National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). The VVSG provide a set of specifications and requirements against which voting systems can be tested to determine if the systems provide all of the basic functionality, accessibility and security capabilities required of these systems. In addition, the guidelines establish evaluation criteria for the national certification of voting systems. The EAC's Technical Guidelines Development Committee, with  technical support from NIST are tasked with developing an initial set of recommendations for each VVSG iteration.[24] After the initial draft guidelines are authored, they are sent to the EAC for review and revision and then released for public comment. Comments are reviewed and considered by the EAC in consultation with NIST in development of the final release. In 2007, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified four electronic voting systems, three of which were conditionally recertified, after a "top-to-bottom review" of the voting machines certified for use in California in March 2007.[25][26] A new version of the VVSG was approved in 2015. Voluntary Voting System Guidelines | The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). A draft version of the 2007 VVSG was developed by the TGDC and NIST. It was not approved by the TGDC nor the EAC. The U.S. Congress then directed the Federal Election Commission (FEC), in conjunction with the National Bureau of Standards to create engineering and procedural performance standards for voting systems. Another report, Voting System Standards: A Report on the Feasibility of Developing Voluntary Standards for Voting Equipment was produced in early 1984.[29] In July 1984 the FEC armed with congressionally appropriated funds began a six-year task of creating the first national performance and test standards for punchcard, marksense, and direct recording electronic voting systems. The resulting body of work was the first set of voluntary Voting System Standards issued in 1990.[30] In addition to their involvement in the origins of national voting certification and testing, the FEC's Office of Election Administration and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) updated the initial Voting System Standards with the 2002 Voting System Standards/Guidelines. The Help America Vote Act mandated the federal certification process be assumed by the EAC. The EAC implemented an interim certification program in July 2006 which provided a means to obtain federal certification for modifications required by state and local election officials administering the 2006 General Election.[31] In summer 2006 the EAC barred the company Ciber Inc. from approving further voting machines. Federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.[32] According to the EAC "Ciber, Inc. has applied for interim accreditation, but EAC has not completed its review, so the Ciber application is pending." They have released relevant documentation regarding the Ciber, Inc. application from accreditation. ^ Whitener, Bryan; Layson, Jeannie (March 8, 2007). "Hunter and Rodriguez Join EAC". U.S. Election Assistance Commission. ^ Alex Knott (April 14, 2011). "Election Assistance Commission May Be Closing". Roll Call. ^ "OnPolitics – USA Today's politics blog". USA Today. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "Commissioner Donald Palmer | U.S. Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. ^ a b c "Commissioners – US Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "Former Commissioners – US Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "About The US EAC – About U.S. EAC – US Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "About The US EAC – About U.S. EAC – US Election Assistance Commission". www.eac.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "Charter of the EAC Standards Board" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 29, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ "Charter of the EAC Board of Advisors" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 29, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ a b "Charter of the EAC Technical Guidelines and Development Committee" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2017. ^ Fessler, Pam (July 31, 2007). "Federal Panel on Voter Fraud Scrutinized". National Public Radio. Retrieved August 30, 2007. ^ Wang, Tova Andrea (August 30, 2007). "A Rigged Report on U.S. Voting?". The Washington Post. pp. A21. ^ Amanda Carpenter (December 3, 2009). "Election Assistance Commission nixes job to man because of GOP affiliation". The Washington Times. ^ "Use of Appropriated Funds to Settle a Claim" (PDF). Election Assistance Commission Office of the Inspector General. September 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011. ^ "Office of Special Counsel Settles Political Discrimination Case" (PDF). United States Office of Special Counsel. December 2, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011. ^ a b c Geller, Eric (June 15, 2019). "Federal election official accused of undermining his own agency". Politico. ^ "History of Voting System Certification and Test Laboratory Accreditation". Election Assistance Commission. Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved February 17, 2007. ^ "2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Volume 1" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 8, 2006. ^ "Top-To-Bottom Review". California Secretary of State. August 3, 2007. Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2007. ^ San Francisco Gate: County officials fear new voting standards will be hard to meet.  August 4, 2007. ^ "EAC's Voting System Certification Program". Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved March 17, 2007. ^ Drew, Christopher (January 4, 2007). "U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com. This page was last edited on 30 April 2024, at 11:51 (UTC). additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.